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Witness Statement
Jane Michelle Tanner
Date 2007-05-04
Time: 11.30
As she is a British citizen and does not understand written or spoken Portuguese, she is assisted by the interpreter, Filipa Silva.
She has been on holiday in Portugal since last Saturday, 28th April, staying at the OC resort in P da L, Lagos, together with her partner (Russell O'Brien), their two children and three couples (Gerald McCann and Kate Healy, Matthew Oldfield and Rachel Mampilly and David and Fiona Payne. The group also included Fiona Payne's mother, Diane Webster.
She was accompanied by her two children, E**a O'Brien aged three and E**e O'Brien aged one.
The other couples also brought their children, G***e Oldfield aged one (the daughter of Rachel Mampilly and Matthew Oldfield), L*** Payne aged two and S******* Payne, aged 11 months (daughters of David and Fiona Payne) and the twins Amelie and Sean McCann aged two and Madeleine McCann who would be four in two weeks time (children of Kate and Gerry McCann).
They were on holiday, which they (the couples) had arranged from England where they are friends. They travelled through the MW agency.
All the couples stayed in individual apartments (I) in the same resort, with their respective children.
Since Saturday the routine was that they would almost all get up at about 07.30-08.00 and then would have breakfast in a restaurant near to their accommodation, called the Millenium (6), taking their children at about 09.00 AM to three different areas of the Kids Club (2) (4) (5) according to the children's' ages.
Only the McCann couple would have breakfast in their apartment, due to the fact that they had three children and because it was complicated to walk with the three at the same time. After this they would also take their children to the Kids Club.
As regards the Kids Club, she clarifies:
E**a O'Brien and Madeleine McCann were in a room in a building near to the reception (4) and English lady called Cat Baker was responsible for them. Apart from her, there were three or four more persons looking after the children, she only remembers one name (Emma Wilding). They would do various activities, such as going to the indoor pool at the resort, they would go to the tennis court, situated outside near to the Tapas restaurant (3), they would got to the beach (outside), they would paint and play (inside the resort).
Scarlet Payne was also near to the reception but in another room (5) different to the one E**a and Madeleine were in. She does not know who was responsible or who the employees who worked in this room were.
As regards G***e Oldfield and E**e O'Brien, Amelie and Sean McCann, they were all in one room (2) near to the Tapas restaurant. The person responsible for GO and E**e O'B was an English citizen called Leanne Wagstaff. As regards L*** Payne, Amelie and Sean, without knowing for certain, she says that the person responsible was Stacy Portz. The activities were identical to those of the other rooms, both inside and outside of the resort. At about 12.30 they would all go and fetch their children from the respective Kids Club rooms, as these would close, and go have lunch.
They would sometimes have lunch together in one of the couples' apartments. At about 14.30 the Kids Club rooms would open again and the only children who returned to the rooms were Madeleine, E**a, Amelie and Sean.
The other children would stay with their respective parents.
At about 16.45 all the children would meet for tea in an annex to the Tapas restaurant (3). It was the employee Cat Baker who would take E**a and Madeleine.
During the time they were having tea, the children's' parents would come and collect them.
Until 3rd May she has no knowledge of anything strange or suspicious having happened to the group of friends or to the children.
Yesterday the witness did not go to breakfast because she had tennis booked for 09.00. It was her partner who took her daughters for breakfast, having previously taken E**a O'Brien to the Kids Club. E**e O'B who was not feeling well, did not go to her Kids Club room and went with her father to look for the witness. They arrived at about 09.30 having waited for almost 30 minutes for the tennis lesson (8) to have finished.
The witness played tennis (8) with Kate and with Diane Webster. She does not know where Kate's children had breakfast, but knows that the three of them went to their respective rooms in the Kids Club. She supposes that it was Gerry who took them there.
During the tennis lesson (8) Kate behaved normally.
After the tennis lesson the witness went with her partner and daughter E**e to the beach (7) where they stayed until about 12.20. After this, they went to pick up E**a from the Kids Club.
She does not know what Kate did after leaving the tennis courts (8) between 10.10 and 11.10.
She does not remember whether Madeleine was still in the room when she went to pick up her daughter, E**a. They both went to their apartment (1) taking their daughters with them. Mathew and Rachel and their daughter also appeared and had lunch with them.
They had lunch between 12.45 and 13.45, afterwards at about 14.00 the witness played tennis again (8) with Rachel.
Her daughters and Rachel's daughter stayed in the apartment (1) with their respective parents.
She remembers that when she was playing tennis, she saw Kate and Gerry arrive at the children's playground, next to the tennis courts, with their three children. Kate waved to her. They stayed at the playground until 14.40 when they went to take the children to the Kids Club.
After finishing playing tennis at about 14.45, the witness went to her apartment (1) where she stayed with her daughter E**e, her partner had gone sailing with Matthew.
At about 15.45 she went to the beach with Rachel, Diane, Fiona, L*** and Scarlet Payne, taking her daughter E**e along.
Meanwhile Russell arrived from the boat trip and went straight to pick up E**a from the Kids Club. They joined the witness at the beach (7) where they stayed until 18.10-18.15.
"When she went to the beach she saw GM and KH having a personal tennis lesson. No children were with them.
Around 17h15 she saw KH pass the beach (7) "jogging", she having waved."
Russell, Matthew and David left the beach a little earlier to go to the tennis court (8), it was men's tennis evening. When the witness, together with her friends and children returned from the beach at about 18.20, they passed by the tennis courts and saw all the men, including Gerry on court. They stayed there talking to them until about 20.30 (sic). Gerald behaved normally.
She thinks Kate was in the apartment (1) putting the children to bed.
At about 19.00 they all went back to their own apartments with the children. The witness bathed her children, read them a story and put them to bed. E**e who was unwell and having trouble sleeping, stayed with her father, who had arrived in the meantime. The witness went for dinner at the Tapas restaurant at about 20.30.
When she arrived at the restaurant several members of the group were already there, without their children. They were all presumably sleeping.
At about 21.00 her husband arrived at the restaurant, having got E**e to sleep. For this reason and because Fiona, David and Diane only arrived at about 21.00, the dinner, reserved for 20.30, only began after 21.00.
Normally, every 15 minutes a member from each apartment would go and check the bedrooms of the respective children to see if everything was all right.
During dinner everything went well. Everyone was in a good mood.
She remembers that at about 21.10 Gerald left the restaurant (3) to go to the apartment to check on the children. Five minutes later, the witness left, to go to her apartment to see whether her daughters were OK. At this moment she saw Gerry talking to an Englishman called Jez whom they had got to know during the holidays. They played tennis with him.
She passed by them knowing that Gerry had already been in the apartment (1) to check his children.
Meanwhile a man appeared ( * ) carrying a child (**), with a hurried walk, it being this detail together with the fact that the child dressed in pyjamas, without being wrapped up in a blanket, that caught her attention. She only managed to see him from the side, with the child in his arms. She noticed the individual's presence exactly when she had just passed by Gerry and Jez who were talking, having seen this person step off the pavement that borders on the apartment block where they were staying and rapidly cross the road.
The entrance to the apartment building (1) is exactly at the place (street) where the individual appeared from.
After checking on her daughters, she returned to the restaurant. On her way back Gerry was no longer talking in the place where she had seen him.
When she arrived at the restaurant Gerry was already there, accompanied by his wife, Kate.
About 15-20 minutes later, her husband Russell and Matthew left to check on the children. As her daughter E**e was restless and crying, Russell stayed in the apartment.
Meanwhile Matthew went to check his child and those of Kate and Gerry. According to what he said, he saw the twins but he did not see Madeleine. As there was no noise he supposed that all was well and returned to the restaurant. Matthew informed the witness that Russell had stayed in the apartment.
After having quickly eaten her main course, the witness went to her apartment in order to take over from Russell, so that he could have his dinner.
When she was in the apartment, at about 22.00- 22.15 she heard Kate and Fiona shouting and saying that Madeleine had disappeared.
When asked, she says that she thinks it was Kate who discovered the girl to be missing, the witness is not sure due not being in the restaurant at that time.
During all the evenings they carried out these procedures, they would get up from the table and check that everything was well with the children.
Madeleine was a lovely, very friendly, very active, playful girl. She likes to jump around. She was intelligent and (the witness) does not believe that if a stranger had approached she would not have shouted.
She says that of all the holiday group, the couple she knows least well are Kate and Gerry. She does not remember Kate had ever mentioned that Madeleine slept badly or had caused any kind of problems.
Description of the tourist resort:
The OC resort is composed of a vast area, in accordance with the map that is annexed to this statement. This map is marked with the numbers of the sites that are of greatest importance to this investigation, such as:
1. Apartments where the couples were staying. This block is composed of 3 or 4 buildings, each containing about 6 apartments, for a total of between 20 and 30 apartments.
2. Kids Club room, attended by G***e, E**e, L***, Amelie and Sea.
3. Tapas restaurant.
4. Kids Club room attended by E**a and Madeleine.
5. Kids Club room attended by Scarlet.
6. Millenium restaurant.
7. P da L Beach.
8. Tennis courts.
9. Area of the sketch made by the witness.
Personal description:
( * ) Dark skinned individual, male sex, aged between 35-40, slim physical appearance, about 1.70m tall. Very dark, thick hair, longer at the back (she could only see him from behind). He was wearing linen type cloth trousers, beige to golden in colour, a "duffy" sic type jacket (but not that thick). His shoes were dark in colour, classic type. He had a hurried walk. He was carrying a child, who was lying on both his arms, in front of his chest. By the way he was dressed, he gave her the impression that he was not a tourist, because he was very "warmly dressed".
(**) About the child whom appeared to be sleeping, she only saw her legs. The child appeared to be older than a baby. She was barefoot and was wearing what appeared to be cotton pyjamas of a light colour (possibly white or light pink). She is not certain, but has the impression a design on the pyjamas, possibly a floral pattern, but she is not certain.
As regards these details, she does not know what Madeleine was wearing at the moment of her disappearance, because she did not talk to anyone about this. As she concerns the man she saw, she only spoke to Gerald about this, not entering into details, and to the police.
When requested, she drew a sketch, which is joined to this statement (9).
When asked, she says she would probably be able to identify the individual she saw, being able to identify him from the side and from his manner of walking.
No more is said.
Reads, ratifies, signs.
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